The Evolution of Oliva 135th Anniversary Prototype #1 to My W4WVK Beater
(The instrument in its mid-2025 state, first-ever performance with it.) There's always going to be a testbed, or prototype, whenever you're building something new or different, and when I started building cigar box guitars, I know eventually I'd want to make instruments which can serve the player in just about any performance situation they'd need. I took one of my favorite Oliva 135th Anniversary boxes that had some dings and dents, and decided I'd make it into an instrument that I could test some ideas on. (Wiring scheme #1--note the "secret weapon" mod on the tone control) I had a scrap piece of wood I could use for the center-plank on this one, and along with some other scraps I ran across for creating risers/spacers and reinforcement, I decided I'd make this a basic tune-o-matic bridge configuration with a simple string anchor tailpiece. Originally it was to have a single humbucker pickup in the bridge position, an MGB "ghost" flat-buc...
